Why an office of religious freedom? God only knows.

Welcome to the Office for the Promotion of Religious Freedom. First, please identify your faith. Press 1 for Roman Catholic, 2 for Protestant, 3 for Jewish, 4 for Muslim, 5 for Buddhist, 6 for Hindu, 7 for Sikh, 8 for Atheist and 9 for Other. If you are being persecuted, please press 0 for assistance. If this is an emergency, please contact your local politician … unless, of course, he or she is doing the persecuting.

Of all the Conservatives’ initiatives to date, the most bewildering is its newly created Office for the Promotion of Religious Freedom. The Tories are deploying five million dollars of taxpayers’ money — ostensibly to promote not a particular religion, but the freedom to practice religion in general. Not in Canada, mind you, but around the world, in places from Turkey to Tibet.

There may be good intentions behind the creation of this office, but we know what road is paved with those. And yes, there is a backstory: Prime Minister Stephen Harper was moved to act by the death of Shabhaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minister of Minorities, murdered for violating his country’s “blasphemy” laws three weeks after meeting Harper in Canada.

But while one can understand Harper’s feelings, such personal goals are better left to the realm of private charity. Why? Because elevating religious freedom above other freedoms — by giving it its own ambassador, office and budget — violates the principle of the separation of church and state.

True, most Canadian laws are derived from Judeo-Christian principles: do not steal, do not kill, love thy neighbour as thyself. But we have no state religion. While our tax system does allow exemptions for faith-based organizations, government does not otherwise promote the practice of religion in general, or of one faith in particular.

Such goals are better left to the realm of private charity. Why? Because elevating religious freedom above other freedoms — by giving it its own ambassador, office and budget — violates the principle of the separation of church and state.

Even in our own country, we subordinate faith groups to general rules regarding respect for human rights. Our courts have held that the right to freedom of expression, the right to equality and the right to security of the person supersede the right to religion-based practices, or to prevent others from engaging in acts which offend religious sensibilities.

Most religions do not respect all these principles, here or abroad. Catholics practice workplace discrimination: women cannot be priests, much less pope. As for gays and lesbians, enough said. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses put their children’s lives at risk by denying them certain medical treatments. Some Muslims believe the Qur’an justifies jihad, or holy war, against non-believers, or gives men the right to beat or even kill their wives and daughters if they bring dishonour on the family name.

Canadian society tolerates some these violations, but not others. We base our distinctions on how much the violations offend our values, and how much they affect society in general. In other words, we are relativists. We pick and choose our battles.

And so the Office of Religious Freedom will have to choose its battles, and therefore will not be able to promote the blanket practice of freedom of religion, but only the practice of faiths which respect most of the other freedoms we champion.

So rather than attempt to pick faith’s winners and losers — something that would take more than the wisdom of Solomon — our government should promote all freedoms, not just religious ones. That’s something Canada already does on the world stage, whether at World Economic Summits or at the United Nations. That is the work of our prime minister, our Foreign Affairs minister, and all the members of our diplomatic service. We don’t need another bureaucrat to do the same job.

Of course, the new office will serve the Tories well politically. It sends a signal to faith groups that the government takes their voices seriously, and not just Christian ones, but Sikh, Hindu, you name it. It is no coincidence that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was present at the announcement, or that in the days following evangelical Christian leader Don Hutchison called on the federal government’s new ambassador to become directly involved in screening refugees and immigrants fleeing religious persecution.

None of that justifies spending five million dollars on an exercise which is both divisive and a violation of one of our basic democratic principles. Religion and politics don’t mix — not in Canada, at any rate.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a well-known political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. In her student days, Tasha was active in youth politics in her hometown of Montreal, eventually serving as national policy director and then president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation of Canada. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

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